I haven’t really been keeping up with Blizzard statements about beta or our pets for the past few weeks, so it’s time to catch up. A couple notes:
- Some of this may be old news that doesn’t apply anymore. I’ll try to weed any of that out if I can, but I may miss something. You can always click through to the original post to see exactly when it was posted.
- If you have been keeping up, you probably know this stuff. In fact, you may well be one of the kind souls who e-mailed me a link to let me know. (If so, thanks!) But I feel better if I get it all in one place, and some readers may have missed some of this.
- It isn’t just Ghostcrawler, but GC gives me a handy code word for the title.
Ghostcrawler on pet damage:
All pet attacks scale with AP now, which is not reflected correctly in the tooltips. We have a plan to make smarter tooltips (for characters too) in a Lich King patch. You will probably do more damage than the tooltips suggest, but you should be used to that because almost all character attacks do the same thing.
Cobra Reflexes has always been somewhat confusing, but it ends up being a dps increase. I’m not sure why your attack speed seems to be fluctuating. We’ll look into that.
Ghostcrawler on pet leveling:
We like pet leveling as a feature, but I agree that the time it takes has grown out of control, possibly because killing mobs doesn’t provide the same percentage of your hunter’s experience as it used to. We’ll try to get it fixed.
Ghostcrawler on avoiding the one best pet:
We’d like to get all 128 pet families as close to each other as we can in terms of dps output. Feedback on this is appreciated. Failing that, we want to avoid the One Pet That Everybody Brings
Ghostcrawler on pet panel improvements:
Yeah, the pet stat layout has totally not kept up with the times. It needs an overhaul and we hope to work on it as soon as LK ships.
Aside from players just knowing what their pet’s stats are, it will help people improve their pets, as well as help us realize where the problem areas are.
Koraa on pet health:
We still are working on bumping the base health of the pets up.
Ghostcrawler on pet action bars:
We also have a plan to make the pet bars much more customizable. You should be allowed to remove any button you don’t use a lot, Stay or Aggressive perhaps, but put it on again like any other attack.
Ghostcrawler on pet hit:
We do have a plan to let pets use the hunter or warlock’s hit. Certain talents would need to be adjusted to reflect this change.
Koraa has also done a lot of posts on non-pet hunter skills in the past few days, although I’m not going to round them all up here. But there’s definitely some interesting stuff going on.
http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wowscrnshot092608142451ls0.jpg
Corehound size change was bound to happen, but they should at least be larger than the Silithid. Its kind of depressing that a Corehound can be looked down upon by a measily bug.
Lamis-
Ursangos is still not tameable.
@Sei
Ah thanks x.x! too bad! But thank you for looking, he would have been a nice add to the bear family.
@ Nissi
It’s a HUGE change but to me it seriously makes me think that they wanted it to look like the size of a wolf, like just a really… Scary puppy.. Oo
Thank you, Sei, was about to head out to check that myself.
Lol well my friend wanted to tame the bearcub; before it was shown how poorly it scaled to size. Not really for ‘girly’ factor, but the pure lol/hilarious factor of chewing peoples faces off with a bearcub, I mean come on.
Though I >do< take offense at someone suggesting we need it because there aren’t enough girly pets; like Cats or Dragonhawks or Birds or etc don’t count, as it is, as someone said. It’s why I’m sad about Dragonhawks too, all my main can dream of taming atm are pink ones, I want a red one :.>
ack lol my post got ate, damn the >’s anyways, I went on to say, people who would roll a race for a class that are not girly, aka Tauren, Troll or Orc’s for example, would not really look into ‘girly’ pets, for the most part. I mean even though I thought the bear cub was cute. I’d not have tamed it for my orc, even though it’s a female toon.
I mean come on. An orc with a brar cub?
I’m a girl and I find it a bit offensive, someone saying there needs to be more girly pets for us to choose from.. I don’t choose a pet if it’s ‘girly’, I choose it cause I like it.
Like wolves or devilsaurs or raptors.
lamis- isn’t that the point of a WoW hunter to find a pet that fits your look if it is to cutsey and ppl wouldn’t take you seriously then by all means pass it up I was speaking for my g/f who was looking forward to taming one so because you think it was over-board you have every right not to tame it she on the other hand thought it was cute and I for one say it was nice to have an odd pet that wasn’t like the other bears in having a snarly face but as Sei has stated I guess I just see things from a different POV. And yes she thinks of all her pets as females too tho that wasn’t the point I know a few hunters that liked that lil cub and will be saddened about not being able to tame him.
Ryai-
sorry you find it offensive but others feel that way just as you feel your way that is why we have the ability to tame any pet we want you don’t like it don’t tame it plain and simple doesn’t mean the options should not be there. Every1 up in arms about me saying there should be girly pets not sure why it is an opinion nothing more one I don’t have alone. you like your wolves and devilsaurs cool tame em you like pink striders and cute lil cubs hey get one of those you want a big core hound that blocks your view tough not there anymore but you get the drift.
……I like Mazzaranche……tame him very often….. *hides*
Palla- Nothing wrong with liking Mazzaranche, and you’re welcome about checking. It’s not that hard for me to check things out at lower levels. I found out that Bad Attitude isn’t working right (already told them).
Grimlord- Watch out, you might end up getting savaged by a lot of female players with wolves. LOL. Honestly, I think the problem is more that your original post was more implying that cutsie = female, and not ‘we need to have more feminine options as well.’ That would have been a different conversation. I mean, that’s how I took the first post.
Ryai- My Orc has a Black Worg. My Blood Elf has a Black Cat. My Troll will have a Red Raptor. And, I’m thinking of making more hunters.
And, you know, I STILL haven’t heard what the ultimate tanking pet is! I’ve tried Bears. I’ve tried Crocs. I’ve tried Boars. So far, I haven’t found any that seem better than the others.
At the moment Sei, hands down gorillas. HOWEVER, I feel like that comes more from the un-nerfed thunderstomp then because of actual full on ability. Using an eighty premade hunter, thunderstomp was dealing something like six hundred damage to all surronding targets, and on a seven second cooldown, WITH thunderstomps increased aggro garnering. Said gorilla was only level 75 ((Only, har har)) but more then capable of taking on packs of six or more. Once numbers are evened out, crocs are likely to be near the top, due to the nature of bad attitude and the high end DPS, and then gorillas, for a straight out AoE, and then bears, for a lesser AoE on a lower cooldown. Just my guess.
Palla-
What you said kind of jibes with what I’ve seen at the lower ends. There may be some that are a bit better, but once they’re evened out, there won’t be enough of a difference to really make you pass up a prefered pet for the ‘best’. Best is going to come down to play style. I would say that, if you’re a round ‘em up an’ kill ‘em Hunter, then those three will be best. If you’re more the kind who likes to pick them off one at a time, then other tanks like crabs will be more your suit.
*Chuckles* Its really not a huge deal either way. Pet damage has gone considerably upwards, as has armor and health. Health could still use a boost, but is so much better then it used to be. That being said, they said they were going to look into it, which I hope happens soon. Beta hunter has 21,000 hit points, beta tenacity pet has 15,000. Not bad, but could be better. I eat through 15,000 hit points like nothing, really.
Well, may go test Wintergrasp or a BG soon, off I go!
Wait… Sei is a girl? 0_0
To be honest I’ve always used the “it’s a guy until proven otherwise” mentality as far as internet stuff goes, but at times it does seems like I’m getting a slap in the face when I found out. ^^;
Then again, a lot of people think I’m a girl… which always confuses me as to why they end up with that conclusion. =*(
Palla-
I know. In the end, it is going to come down to play style and nothing else.
Shinryu- I think it’s because of your Avatar.
And, yes, I’m a woman.
I’m a woman. YAY!
and i resent the comment about mazz. i love mazzaranche. ima tame one when the patch comes out.
LOL,
OK, this is going to be rather funny in the long run. There are some more, shall we say, feminine pets out there. However, I feel like Mazz is just too flamboyant for my tastes.
*Laughs* Flamboyant, yes. I used to enjoy the look of horror I could imagine on peoples faces when my pink tallstrider of doom beat them to death…. talk about embarassing…
For my second, something I think everyone will enjoy at higher pet talent levels is not having to feed your pets. Once you’ve learned carrion feeder, guard dog, or blood thirsty, you can feasibly go ad infinitum under normal circumstances and never feed your furry ((Or scaley. Or feathered. Or….)) again. In fact, considering that I have meat on my premade and thats it, I’ve had to just let several pets gnaw on things until they became happy. It takes a fight or two, but man oh man is it better then having to run out and find another type of food.
I read somewhere that bears were getting their mouths closed, can anyone confirm? That was one of my huge pet peeves(pun intended) about them, I named the only one I’ve ever tamed “Shutmamouf”.
Sukulatae-
They are now shut durring idle time. Their portrate now has them close mouthed too, as does the opening screen. However, when running, they open their mouths again, and they do the same durring fighting.
Palla-
I know. Right now, at lower levels, you are going to go through a lot more food than before, but it is nice to know that it will taper off.
Yup, taper off and ultimately disappear, with a little patience. Its nice. Ferocity pets take a step further and during normal game play don’t even need to be healed. While it isn’t the 5% listed under blood thirsty((Spirit bond heals for more, by way of example)), its still enough that normal and even two to three mob fights hardly scratch them.
Instances don’t apply to this for tenacity pets, mind you, unless your pet is tanking, since guard dog requires guard.
Requires GROWL* dog gone it.
*LAUGHS* I tried to post that right after my first comment, and it gave me a “Your posting to quickly, slow down!” screen!
I am guess by 128 pets they ment possible adding more exotic pet families in after LK release I.E. Kodos, Thunder Lizards, Bucks ect… or so I hope always wanted a stag as my pet but we will just wait and see.
I tried reading all these comments but, wtheck, girly pets? I don’t think I find any pets particularly “girly” except for that flamingo XD And that’s coming from a girl. But perhaps I don’t count because I’m one of those tomboys. Plus, I absolutely detest pink.
Come to think of it, I’ve never even named one of my pets a female name. I’ve always referred to them as “he” on vent chats with guildies and they have masculine names. Never really gave much thought to that.
To Shinryu: I tend to assume people are the characters they play. Not to say I really think someone’s a tauren mind you, but that if they play a male, I assume its a he, and if it’s a girl I assume a she. Only been wrong a few times with the “she” being a “she” a few times.
But anyways, back to the polar bear cub thing. Yeah, I never expected that to stay in. No one should’ve honestly. It had the model of a bear critter, not pet. In my honest opinion, it looked terrible blown up. The model just wasn’t meant to be a big pet.
And I wouldn’t give up hope for new pets even after Wrath releases. After all, we did get Dire Ravens after TBC’s launch <3
Well, I hope purple isn’t “girly” or I’ll have to change Suku’s pet theme…It’s funny, people kinda assume I’m a guy at first, then as they get to know me they realise, and I’ll get a /tell saying “OMG you really are a gurl!” Then they don’t believe my male undead warlock has the same person driving. I don’t usually make male characters, but “Hesdeadjim” wouldn’t work on a female.
I kinda liked the more comic look of the baby bears, but I’ll survive without it. Going to have to go BM when patch hits though, BaalFluffy(the Kurken) demands it!
Thinking back on it, all my pets are male too. And Baal is the left head, Fluffy is the right one. They let me know kinda early in our PTR play which was which.
(sorry for the double post)
@Sukulatae-
That is the greatest name EVAH! “Hesdeadjim” made me lol in RL!! Thank you!!
*laughs*
Kitairra
@Ryai-
“you want a big core hound that blocks your view tough not there anymore but you get the drift.”
Wait…wait…are you saying they took out the Core Hounds and made then un-tameable?!
Or is that just a description of their smaller size?! Please clarify,as I want my
corehound!! Thank you.
Kitairra
Sorry for posting twice!
Corehounds are still tameable just smaller in size
A while back someone did a study that ran on the BBC about girls and women who play video games. First of all, most of us are over the age of twelve. We also don’t want things like Desperate Housewives and pink playstations. In my experience, by the time many women and girls are getting into gaming, we’ve matured passed the pink, and cutsie stuff of childhood.
That said, I don’t own a lot of vanity pets because they take up too much space, but I don’t see a problem with having cute vanity pets. Somehow being savaged by a teddy bear seemed way off the mark.
I, on the other hand, own numerous vanity pets. I don’t go out of my way to collect them, but all of my alliance characters are expected to at least have a sprite darter and a white kitten. *Grins* My hunter also has Egbert, whom I think of as adorable. We call his running around randomly a distraction. *Laughs*
Just my two cents: I always thought stegodons should be tamable. They look like they’d make excellent tenacity pets!
Lmao anyone notice Palladiamors acting completely different once he found out Seidouyumi was the opposite gender? I think he’s flustered!
I don’t see any difference in his behavior.
I do have a nice collection of vanity pets though, but I think that comes from being a Pokemon fan, back when that came out and there was only 151 of them. XD
I think he’s a bit surprised, but hasn’t really altered his normal behavior.
I’m always worried about explaining a lot about my life and who I am. So far, I’ve been kicked out of two guilds for being too open about myself.
What?! That’s really mean on their part! O_o; Though I can relate a bit to that. Almost all of the people around where I live thinks I’m a freak, just cause I think outside of their little collective bubble. You should see people’s faces when I tell them that the Japanese songs I’m listening to isn’t sung by a real girl but a computer program. It’s even worst when they see I’m dead serious and say stuff like “Huh? What’s next? You’re going to tell me they’re making human looking robots?” only to see me reply with “Actually, they do.”
People from Quebec are way too close minded to the outside world. It’s sad. =(
Shinyu,
It can’t be worse than the bulk of the American South where I faced a great deal of prejudice. What’s funny is I now live just South of Quebec in Vermont, land of my birth. The two guilds in question did not like the fact that I rather conversationally mentioned that I am not attracted to men. I play a mean Paladin, and am an excellent Healer and was always a great asset to the guild, though, and no one said anything to me until the atmosphere there had gotten so toxic that I felt I had to walk away.
I am always worried about putting anything in these forums which might cause issues to arrise as well. It’s part of why I’ve been so reluctant to continue my stories about Seidouyumi.
… your ex-guildmates are retards. Seriously. I guess the guys didn’t like the fact that they couldn’t hit on you. Bunch of losers. =P
Well, they lost a great Healer. Then, to compound it, they lost out on a really great Shaman Healer. Then they fractured and broke up. I don’t know what their problem was, but they lost out in the end, and I went back to building up my Horde characters.
If one pet gets an ability that does DPS, and one pet gets an ability that decreases damage taken on itself, or heals itself…. then OBVIOUSLY people are going to bring the DPS pet…
So, ghostcrawler would either have to make that DPS ability do less DPS than the regular focus dump, or step away from that notion to begin with.
BBR-
Actually, I’m not so sure. Doing solo work, a Tallstrider would be an equal pet to a Cat because Tallstriders are greater chances of surviving a lengthy battle than a Cat does.
And then you get some of the funky bits to this. Dustcloud causes the melee opponent to miss his next attack period. It doesn’t matter if the melee attacker is going after the pet, the tank, or a healer, it misses. I can see how having that along in an instance would be hugely popular. Furious Howl is also a great pet skill to have along since it boosts the melee and ranged damage of ALL players in the instance. Something like Pin would also have judicious uses in any instance too in pinning down and saving a squishy.
Anyone who wants to just bring DPS along isn’t being creative. If all someone is looking at is base damage, then they aren’t really looking at the whole picture of what a pet’s abilities can do.
Sorry, typo in that last post. They have a greater chance of surviving a lengthy battle…
Still pondering the 128 families thing… but other than that, kinda sad that the cub got taken out. I would have probably poked at it for a bit, then gone back to my tried and true furball Ruka.
I would have grabbed it for PvP and the whole issue of dying to something named “CutiePie”… yes, I’m dead serious on the name. Heck, I’ve been killed by a SnugglydaBear before… I laughed, rezzed, and then went and hunted down the polar bear and its handler.
I’ve probably seen some of the more amusing pet names while in battlegrounds on various characters. Tempted to grab a Windserpent and name it Lazer Turkey after a Boomkin friend of mine.
However, the closed mouth idle animation on bears is making me smile. I can understand why the mouth would be open during running and combat, but as long as its not drooling on me while we are standing around in Shatt, that’d be an improvement.
Wow, what a long thread – and with so much “coming out” in it!
Just in case anyone’s keeping count, I’ve always referred to all of my pets as “he”, though mostly I think of them as “pet” (I might sometimes be pushed to remember the name of my current pet).
Perhaps this is because I’m an engineer, and I approach WoW as an intellectual puzzle in which my pet is both part of the problem and part of the solution. I don’t really think of my pets as being independent entities.
Or perhaps it’s because (my coming out moment), despite my main characters(*) both being nubile young females, I’m a boring elderly male.
But don’t we all tend to say “he” for an animal of indeterminate sex? Or does saying that make me a cultural dinosaur?
Anyway, I had to comment on this:
You know Grimlord, what you (or maybe your girlfriend) need is [Belbi's Eyesight Enhancing Romance Goggles]. No more need you be offended by blatantly sexist character models, since everyone looks like a male gnome (some of them skimpily dressed). These are also for you if gnomes are REALLY your thing. OK, if you didn’t get them at last month’s brewfest you might have to wait a while…